Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-04
the country? We should hesitate long
before we adopt so broad a construction

Of the constitution.
But If the authority could be found in
| the constitution to provide for the educa-
ton of the people, as contemplated In
this bill, would it be wise to do so in the
present condition OF the country? Why,
if it be the fact, is illiterscy increasing?
Did it increase before the late civil war?
Where illiteracy abounds now it must
contin lie till the negroes that were
emancipated from slavery and their i'm
mediate descendants die, and until the
expressions and heavy burdens that are
upon all the people from taxation are
taken off and economy takes the place Of
wasteful extravaganza il the adminlstra-
ton of the government. We have
legitimate use for all lie money IN the
treasury. Pay the de- we owe and
stop the millions of dc lars of interest
! these debts are bearing annually. Reduce
taxes on the necessaries of life and make
the luXaries bear the burden of taxation
for the legitimate needs Of the govern
ment economically administered, and
leave the surplus millions with the peo-
pie. Then hore and thrift will again in
spire and comfort the poor and illterate.
| Then they will have the means to provide
or physical.
The danger to the stability of our gov
ern uent does not arise from illiteraCy,
but from unwise aud urjust revenue laws.
Oar fathers of revolutionary memory
were not remarkable for their learning
They loved personal and local liberty, aud
hated unjust, oppressive revenue laws.
They threw off the yoke of the Oppressor.
| They were seIf-reliant, and grew in wealth
and learning and in the arts and sciences
under just and equal laws that command
ed their observance and devotion. All OF
their grand achievements were the result
of efforts unaided by contributions from
the government Their growth, though
rapid. was natural, the result of individ-
| u9l effort.
Illiteracy except that which exists
among the emancipated negroes and their
immediate descendants) has resulted
mainly from the heavy foreign pauper pop
ulation that has immigrated into our
country since the late war, and the power
ty of the masses caused by the late war :;
and their poverty is aggravated, and will
be continually aggravated, with all at
lendant woes and ills, until the taxes are
reduced and class legislation is aban-
doned, and until Just and constitutional
laws are enacted and the government is
administered in the interest of all the
people, and not in the interest OF the
favored few
Unfetter the manhood of Americans
and give them equal opportunities in the
battle of life. Protect them in their lives,
liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and
they will, as their fathers did, demon
strate in their devotion to constitutional
liberty, in their prosperity, and in their
intellectual, moral, and social elevation,
the .Ieffersonian doctrine that the people
are capable of self-gOvernment. Further
protection or assistance is not needed,
nor is it wise. The protection given to
the capital invested in favored industries
in our once happy country has cursed our
land, impoverished millions of the people,
and increased illiteraCy.
Apply the millions of dollars proposed
to be extended under this bill to the
states that are too poor to educate their
iliiterata, end teach tue people to look from
themselves for the means to educate their
children to the United States govern
ment, and then withhold assistance, if it
| be possible, and the educational interests
in the states will as certainly decline as
the unprotected industries will decline
when they are deprived OF protection.
This result will be inevitable: The
government is best that governs least"
Let Us return to the old constitutional
methods that were observed in the earlier
and happier years of the republic, and
perpetuate our dual system of govern
ment, and this can only be done by re-
speeding the division of powers made be-
tween the states and their agent, the
federal government, by our fathers in the
constitution of the United States. And
if we are faithful to the old time honored
doctrine of "strict construction" our
government will be, what it was intended
to be, perpetual Inheritance and bless
ing to the descendants of its authors.
Applause y 3